What does it take to become a professional?

It's been a while since I've posted up an entry so this topic probably sounds a bit outdated.

Anyways I've been pretty sick this past week, it could be the change of season or the change of temperature but one thing you shouldn't do under any circumstance is get sick. Health is number one or else you can't do anything. From that one week, I've fallen so behind in my classes and catching up is not fun.

Becoming a professional these days has so many checkpoints. First of all, a thorough education in the field is needed. Since my major is theater I have to learn all that I can in this field to determine my specific area of concentration. For now I'm leaning more towards the side of set design, but I am currently learning about lighting design. There are so many more sides to theater that I want to explore and for once I feel like there isn't enough time. But even with an education everyone always makes note of where the education you've gained came from. So hopefully, I will be able to get into the grad school of my dreams, NYU Tisch.

Along with an education passion is essential. I feel in any career you won't truly enjoy it or progress in it if you lack passion. It's the adrenaline that keeps you moving and getting you past rough patches. To produce that perfect piece that just keeps fueling the engine is a goal that I personally would like to achieve.

But other than these two essential aspects, I believe the most important would have to be networking. There are so many people out there who share the same dreams and have the same paperwork as you do, if not better that if that is all you're relying on... well, it's not enough anymore. Not only do you need to dazzle in talent, without connections, it will be very hard to navigate in territories, especially in areas such as theater. The theater world, a designer told me, is very small and everyone knows everyone. She told me that there are no room for mistakes and perfectionists are welcome because when you do well, people know about it and when you do poorly, people hear about it too. It's a lot of pressure and its a paycheck to paycheck kind of life but what can I do if this just happens to be my area of interest?